Copying

I have noticed a lot of talking about copying here lately and the honor of not copying without permission. There are several ways of being copied, design, sales efforts, plagiarism and product. There have been some pretty caustic statements about these things. I have noticed that nobody sold flat band slingshots again until Saunders made them popular again. I noticed that nobody sold over the top slingshots until Saunders made them popular. Blue Skeen made the first flat band, 2 bands per side band assemblies and I got permission to show them to Saunders. Nobody had a slingshot "Glossary of Terms" until I published on in 2000. In the 1950's there were several ergo designs brought forth by individuals and even a couple patented. Now don't get me wrong, I think that there are some very good new ideas out there, but unless you are willing to spend the money for a patent, somebody ids going to copy you. Bill Hays said it best when I brought to his attention that his new and very unique design had been knocked off by someone. He said "it was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time" Now here is what I think, if you are selling custom bands or slingshots, you need to be careful of what you say, because you can run off potential customers without even trying, and if a product is good and a good value it will stand the test of time (patent or not!). Tex-Shooter -- Have a nice day.